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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (359)	7/8/2000 3:41:13 PM
From: ftth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

Thanks for the fSONA link. I forgot about that one. Jolt and CableFree both claim P-MP from what I've seen. I'll try to locate some links later. Personally I don't see what the big deal is with P-MP or any flavor of multicast in these settings, nor do I see why this has become such a synonym for "better." It doesn't seem to me that any big technological breakthrough is necessary to multicast-enable these P-P networks for one, and there really isn't yet much use of multicast for another. I'm sure there are select business apps that need to simultaneously feed multiple geographically-dispersed sites, but I have a hard time believing that: A) this is a substantial part of their traffic and B) they don't already have this solved if they really need it. Frank, what's been your experience with percent of businesses that demand multicast, as well as what percent of their traffic is multicast? Any ball park figures from your experience? Are these typically high-rate, long duration streams? That would be the only scenario where it would be of great importance. Protocols for multicast already exist; it just a matter of installing them and having routers that understand them. Nothing needs to be invented. Besides, if your data needs to go outside your fiberless optical cloud, all multicast bets are off and the ability to support it within the cloud is a moot point. The support needs to be end-to-end, like so many other things. That end to end flow needs to be worked out before there is any reason to consider p-mp as a key product feature. Anyone that can shed some "light" on why P-MP is such a necessary function and is worthy of all the tout, please do. It can always be emulated as multiple unicasts, at the cost of bandwidth in certain portions of the route.

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (359)	7/13/2000 2:02:02 PM
From: Leigh McBain	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

To the best of my knowledge Terabeam is the "ONLY" true point-multipoint solution. The Multilink system from GoC that you referred to is a pt-pt solution, they are using multiple transmitters and receivers on each link for redundancy etc. The other system that is advertising a solution suggesting some form of multi-point environment is Airfiber, the reality there however is that they have designed a meshed network of point-point links via ATM. As for point-point being old hat, it is in a base form, however significant strides are being made with regards to reliability of the links etc. as well as the deployment of eye-safe systems. Ourselves (fSONA) and Terabeam are running at 1550nm which allows for much higher laser power use compared to other wavelengths, but getting that laser power at 1550, cost effectively, is no slam dunk. For that reason I would suggest that the optical wireless sector is really just starting to look at coming out of it's infancy and into the mainstream. There is an advantage to the pt-pt concept as well, that is flexibility. From a network capability perspective a meshed or switched pt-pt network compares quite nicely with the point to multipoint networks. The drawbacks for a large point-point network is the number of transmitters required, the benefit is the cost where only a couple of links are required and the flexibility of how and where you deploy. I hope this has been of some help. Sincerely, Leigh McBain Director Product Sales/Support fSONA Communications Corporation